


Extended Extract from "Hammer and Anvil", by Emma Aeducan

by Altonym



Category: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 07:32:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1890357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altonym/pseuds/Altonym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A seminal work of dwarven military theory, "Hammer and Anvil" documents the major epochs of dwarven history and their impact on dwarven military practice. Written in the early Blessed Age, it concerns itself with the fundamental tenets of thaig warfare and is widely regarded as the definitive introductory text for understanding dwarven warfare. What follows is an extract from its initial chapter, "The Immortal Shieldwall."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Extended Extract from "Hammer and Anvil", by Emma Aeducan

It is a strange quirk of history that the most mundane information tends to be the best preserved. The limited information that our Shapers recall from before the era of the darkspawn is, primarily, rather dry; lists kept safely in storehouses until their discovery a hundred generations later, records of minor noble houses preserved by the tectonic luck of the abandoned thaigs, rosters drawn up of the troops that such and such particular lord could expect in the event of a minor border squabble. At first glance, these ancient scraps of bureaucracy seem of limited use at best - but I have always maintained that the most valuable history is the humdrum.

It is possible to plot projections backwards of the military theory of this lost world, based on such clues. As with the modern dwarven caste system, ancient dwarven militaries consisted of warrior caste families sworn to noble families; one subordinate warrior caste family would often be held closer to hand, a kandach (personal guard) for estate and livelihood. Ancient noble houses were far more spread out than modern dwarven nobility - before the arrival of the darkspawn, almost every noble house, regardless of where their power base lay, controlled an individual thaig that could vary in size from a hundred to thousands. Even the great city states of the dwarves tended to begin as thaigs rooted around single families.

The conflict of the ancient dwarves was, by all accounts, internal - the dwarves interacted with the surface to trade, and little more. The inhabitants of under and overground have historically been equally disgusted with each anothers' habitat - we dwarves feared falling off the earth, the surface-dwellers feared claustrophobia, an echoing earthbound tomb. Dwarven power struggles thus lay between thaigs - over prime farming ground for funghi, over nug grazing land, over key ore veins and particularly accessible sections of the water table.

The low population and highly close-knit nature of most thaigs often led to war that was as much ritual as it was genuine savagery - a contest of battle prowess rather than bloodshed. It is my view that we see in such wars-for-show the birth of the modern Proving. However, as thaigs grew in prominence and gained the vassalage of surrounding houses, an era of formal dwarven warfare began between city states most often sited at important underground geological features, or at passages to the overworld.

The traditional and fundamental unit of such inter-thaig warfare is the phalanx - the locked-step and squarish formation of heavily armoured and shielded warriors, capable of adopting shield walls either for defense against ranged attack or against a charging opponent. The tunnels we have carved into this earth are by their very nature riddled with bottlenecks in ways the surface world is not - it favours a cautious, defensive style of warfare, as does a low and precious population. A properly armed phalanx of thirty warriors can defend a chokepoint against an onslaught of thousands - one need not lose a single soldier. Take key points and defend them mercilessly, starving out your enemy over a long war of attrition until they concede instead of starving. It is a gradual, inch-by-inch method of waging war.

Dwarven military strategy against the darkspawn has followed much the same pattern - the darkspawn are an ocean who break ceaselessly against the solid cliffside of the dwarven phalanx. Where once thaigs fought each other, now the Houses have collapsed into the few remaining dwarven city states, and their armies watch for the threat of darkspawn instead.

Of all practitioners of phalanx warfare, the Legion of the Dead is the most famous and proficient. Their utter resignation to death inspires without a doubt the most solid and unyielding shield wall in existence today, and their successes despite overwhelming numerical odds are a testament to the utility of this simple yet effective formation.

The Legion of the Dead practice what is known as the Classical Phalanx - a simple square which stands ahead of any other troops and holds ground solidly. The virtues of the Classical style are its simplicity (meaning that it can be formed quickly and without fuss), its redundancy (many layers of soldiery who can replace their comrades) and its reliability (it is difficult to break even via the cavalry charge of the Orlesian Cavalier corps, as Emperor Louis the Miner discovered to his cost).

There are two main further divisions of Phalanx - the Arrowhead, and the Swarm. The Arrowhead is an advancing Phalanx, wide at the back and narrow at the front, which storms forward deflecting blows along an angled shieldwall. Thaigs with frequent skirmishes and contact with surface folk are the masters of the Arrowhead Phalanx, which is specialised in fighting non-dwarven forces.

The Swarm combines the doctrine of the Phalanx with the doctrine of the Beserker, and has fallen out of favour due to its main purpose - to break other massed Phalanx regiments. The Swarm sacrifices a level of durability, adding narrow gaps in the shield wall which are then "opened" as needed - through those gaps rush follows of the Beserker doctrine, who tear through the opponent's line. Efficient use of the Swarm Phalanx brought Orzammar to regional power in the first half of the Dwarven Golden Era.


End file.
